US Dollar – can it keep strengthening?

By Callum HolmesJanuary 12th, 2015

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The US dollar had a disappointing end to the week, after disappointing data surrounding wage growth stateside. The average earnings figures showed an unexpected drop, and as a result detracted from speculation that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates sooner than later. A positive non-farm employment change figure failed to counteract this negativity, and as such we saw the dollar decline against most, including sterling and the euro.

This week starts off slowly for the US dollar on the data front, with only words from a member of the Federal Reserve liable to impact the markets today. Tomorrow returns to the labour market for job openings data, before the more influential data starts mid-week.

Wednesday holds the retail sales figures from the US, as markets look for more evidence of a strong economy, before a busy Thursday. Here we will see some inflation information in the form of the Producers’ Price Index (PPI), which is due alongside the regular unemployment claims figure. Both of these are key areas for the Federal Reserve to consider for their interest rate rise timeline, and as such are sure to be closely watched. Thursday also brings the manufacturing index from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve, before Friday keeps the tempo with some more inflation figures. This will come in the shape of the Consumer Price index (CPI), before the busy week finishes off with consumer sentiment data from the University of Michigan.